2/ Bildad Kaggia was born in 1921 in Dagoretti, where his father, Mwaganu, worked. His family, however, hailed from Fort Hall district (Murang’a).
3/ Through his book, Roots of Freedom, Kaggia gave us a glimpse of who the real organizers of Mau Mau were. 
4/ According to him, Mau Mau was organized by the Central Committee of Kenya African Union (KAU), which was ironically founded at the Banana Hill home of a former colonial senior chief, Koinange.
5/ Wrote he:
6/ "Fred Kubai and myself were members of the Committee, but it was decided that no KAU official should be an official of the Committee. Although we were among those who had leading parts in the deliberations, we held no office. The Chairman was Eliud Mutonyi, and the...
7/ ...Secretary was Isaac Gathanju....”
8/ Kaggia belonged to the radical wing of KAU. KAU radicalists believed that uhuru could only be achieved through the path of violence.
9/ Kaggia had served in the army for Britain during WW2. He and others in his circle had little patience for the quest by leaders like Jomo Kenyatta, J. Otiende and Tom Mbotela to be granted freedom via constitutional means. They were willing to bear arms again but this time...
10/ ...for their own country.
11/ In his book, Kaggia goes further to explain that it was he and this group of radicalists who laid the foundation for the formation of Mau Mau.
12/ Before dabbling in politics, he worked as a clerk at the Fort Hall DC’s office in the early 1940s. The racial discrimination he underwent in the course of his stint had a profound effect on his views on colonialism. The treatment meted out on him while working for the...
13/ ...colonial government was part of the reason he founded Dini ya Kaggia. This was a Christian sect that splintered away from the Anglican Church. Kaggia wanted a church that blended Christianity with African traditions and forms of worship.
14/ Worried by the sect’s rising popularity, the colonial administrators clamped down on it, imprisoning many of his followers on the charge of staging illegal meetings.
15/ Frustrated, Kaggia decided that confronting the government through the pulpit of religion was not feasible.
16/ And it’s through his political activism and agitation for violence that Bildad Kaggia ended up as one of the Kapenguria Six.
17/ Upon independence, Kaggia became a vocal proponent for government policies that prioritized the welfare of the poor. He broke ranks with President Jomo Kenyatta and his administration on this account.
18/ And when Oginga Odinga dumped KANU and founded KPU party in 1969, Kaggia was among its first members. This unwavering association with Oginga is what would later on lead to his rejection by his Kandara voters during the general elections of 1974.
19/ In this 1951 photo, he is photographed with his wife Deborah and son Mwaganu.
20/ Deborah is the lady in this photo, which was taken shortly before she passed on in 2000.
21/ This other photo is that of Kaggia and Koigi Wamwere (dreadlocked), taken sometime in the 90s.
22/ Finally, this is the exercise book that Kaggia used while enrolled in Kahuhia Primary School, in 1936.
23/ Kaggia will be remembered for his welfare activism, and for his principled and loyal brand of politics.
24/ He died in 2005 and his funeral in Murang’a was attended by throngs of former freedom fighters including the then sole surviving member of Kapenguria Six, Charles Oneko, President Mwai Kibaki and Cabinet Minister Raila Odinga, among others.
